british empire

This pair of unhallmarked silver collar dogs was produced as a trial pattern (ie a pattern that was never introduced into service, so rare) somewhere between 1922 and the end of the Indian Empire in 1948.

This badge (3.3 cm tall and marked J R Gaunt London on the reverse) served as both an officer's collar dog for mess kit or a side cap badge from 1935-1951. The regiment was named after its first colonel.

This badge (3.2 cm tall) served as both an officer's collar dog for mess kit or a side cap badge from 1935-1951. This is the last design worn by this distinguished regiment at the end of the Empire in India. Skinner's Horse's nickname was the Yellow Boys, after the colour of their tunic. They were one of the oldest regiments of the Indian Army.

This badge (4.5 cm high) would have been worn on an officer's peaked service cap. In 1923, the 31st DCO Lancers and the 32nd Lancers were amalgamated to form this unit (the 13th DOC Lancers). Both regiments had a common origin in the old Bombay Squadron of Cavalry, raised for service under Lord Lake.

After the annexation of the Zhob District in Baluchistan (1889), the Zhob Levy Corps was raised and came under the control of an English officer (Major), who would have been posted as a Political Officer, not as their commandant (Political Officers were the forerunners of what later became the Indian Political Service).

This exotic unit was raised under Lord Curzon's famous 'forward' frontier policy starting in 1900 when, in the North West Frontier Province, the army was withdrawn from tribal territory and replaced with disciplined tribal irregulars under British officers. Four battalions of militia were formed in Waziristan totalling 3,200 men.

This regiment was raised by Sir Charles Napier for local service in Scinde provincein 1844 and was the only Bombay unit at the siege of Delhi. It then went on to serve in Abyssinia (1866) and Afghanistan (1878-80).

This regiment's other title was Watson's Horse. In 1947, on Partition, it transferred to the Pakistan Army as the 6th Lancers. A Captain Michael Allmand of this regiment won a posthumous VC for gallantry in northern Burma in 1944.

This would have been worn until the amalgamation of Probyn's Horse with the 12th Cavalry in 1922. It would appear to be an other ranks example and was worn on a rectangular white metal plate. Probyn's Horse became King Edward's Own Lancers in 1906, having sported the Prince of Wales title since 1876.

This is the badge which was worn on the pouch belt by the officers of the British Indian police. The police was divided into two components in India: the paramilitary police battalions who served on the frontiers (viz Burma and NWF) and the local police, who kept order in the cities and towns of India.